So I got a very good price (about 50% under the general 'going rate') on a near mint Canon FD 135mm f/2. The lens has flawless glass, flawless aperture blades, perfect focus and only a few very small, very minor scuffs on the retractable hood. It looks practically brand new. I also got it complete with original box, all original packing materials, caps, manual, unused warranty card and even the original silica gel! My FD->m4/3 adapter came today, but I only had a chance to take a few shots.

First impressions: This is a very good lens. It's pretty sharp wide open (not critically sharp, but still very good), with very nice bokeh. The only downside optically that I can see so far is that like many fast older lenses, it is prone to a bit of purple fringing on high contrast areas and a fair amount of longitudinal CA, depending on the subject. Overall, though, these are pretty minor, and to get good resolution wide open on the extremely dense GH2 sensor, means that I bet on full frame this thing would be absolutely amazing (if you could hack it apart to adapt it). Anyway, I'm using it as a fast longish telephoto, and I think it will perform quite well for that. It's built well, but is rather lightweight for the length/aperture. It handles really well on my GH bodies. I think I'll like this a lot.

I got a chance to stretch its legs a bit today. Here are a few more. Definitely a good lens, though harder to focus than most of my other alt lenses just because of how little is in focus wide open at this focal length...just takes a little longer to make sure I've got focus nailed (though the GH2 is pretty easy in that depar tment) These are all wide open:

"The only downside optically that I can see so far is that like many fast older lenses, it is prone to a bit of purple fringing on high contrast areas and a fair amount of longitudinal CA, depending on the subject."

The PF can be dealt with in post relatively easily. The LoCA obviously can't, but I find it only is an issue in certain situations. With what I shoot, I generally only see it in very busy background situations, where there's a bit of green ringing on the highlights.

It is not a perfect lens, that is for sure. I've also noticed while resolution is pretty darn good in the 5 to 10 or 12 foot range, it falls off at further distances, and right at MFD. Still, for the price I paid, it's a good lens with good subject separation and nice color. Bokeh can be very good in some instances and not so great on more distant subjects, but a lot of fast lenses have that issue (The Rokinon 85 for instance, has amazing bokeh at portrait distances but horrendous ringing on distant subjects shooting wide open (plus more LoCA than the FD 135/2 at a distance...I shot with both on my GH2 yesterday).

For more images, see my "GH2 Shoots Golf" thread in the alt forum, or my "Memorial Tournament" thread in the Sports Corner Forum. (the one in the Sports Corner is a subset of the ones in my GH2 shoots... thread, with some of the weaker images weeded out)